LS polls: With farmer, worker by his side, Digvijaya Singh files papers from Rajgarh

Veteran Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh filed his nomination papers from the Rajgarh Lok Sabha constituency on Tuesday.

Prior to arriving at the district election office, the two-time former chief minister offered prayers at a temple in his hometown of Raghogarh. Accompanied by wife Amrita Rai, Singh (77), who comes from the former royal family of Raghogarh (within Rajgarh), will face BJP candidate and two-term sitting MP Rodmal Nagar, an RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) functionary, considered close to former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Apart from his wife, Singh was accompanied by his lawyer, a farmer, and a worker. These were the only people he agreed to have with him during the nomination filing, sources close to him told NH.

Singh first became the MP from Rajgarh in 1984. However, he lost the seat to the BJP’s Pyarelal Khandelwal in 1989 before reclaiming it in 1991. Singh vacated the seat in 1993 when he was appointed chief minister.

His younger brother Lakshman Singh won the Rajgarh seat in a 1994 by-election and held it until 2009. However, there was a twist: he joined the BJP in 2003 and won the seat on its ticket in 2004. In 2009, Lakshman Singh was defeated by the Congress’ Narayan Singh Amlabe, and he returned to the Congress in 2013.

The BJP secured the Rajgarh constituency for two consecutive terms (2014 and 2019). Consequently, the party has nominated Nagar for a third term. In 2019, Nagar defeated the Congress’ Mona Sustani by a margin of over 4 lakh votes.